James Albert Garland (1840-1900)

He was born in Philadelphia. He was a partner with Jay Cooke "financier of the Civil War" and Harris C. Fahenstock. Considered an expert in the securities market, after the failure of Jay Cooke & Co. in 1873, he and Fahenstock were invited to co-found the First National Bank of New York (today's Citibank) of which he served as Vice-President. Among his many other business interests, he was also a co-founder of the Northern Pacific Railroad. Towards the end of his life he moved to London as a partner with J.P. Morgan. He was a client of Joseph Duveen and a serious collector of tapestries, oriental jades, and most notably Chinese porcelain. The James A. Garland Collection was one of the largest and most comprehensive in the United States comprised of over a thousand Kangxi (1662-1722) period blue and white and coloured porcelains. The collection was on loan to the Metropolitan Museum until 1902 when his heirs sold it to the Duveen Brothers for $500,000, who sold it to J.P. Morgan. When he died in 1900, his estate was valued at $7 million, but his shares and securities continued to rise at such a rate that by 1903 his family were at a a loss as to how to divide the estate fairly, having reached in excess of $10 million. He was survived by his wife and three children.